The supervisors faced public outcry when the board very nearly closed the pool before the summer this year.

However, supervisors decided to give it another year when members of the public devoted to keeping the pool open stepped forward offering funding alternatives.

Many of those alternatives turned out not to be feasible, Pickard said.

The pool at Blanche D. Price Park outside the township offices had been a consistent money-loser for years. It lost about $48,000 in 2011, and about $35,000 this year.

While the losses were cut this year with many volunteer hours and a slight increase in pool membership, it wasn't enough to offset the current and future costs.

The township had been willing to take the hit in operating costs in previous years, but a combination of dwindling available municipal funds, a dedication to hold the line on property taxes and the amount of necessary repairs — township officials said — prompted supervisors to pull the plug on the funding.

"It just took so much money this year, and it was going to take so much money next year, we just couldn't do it again," Supervisor John Halahan said. "We'd like to do something in the future, yes. But we don't have the bread to get this thing opened this year."

That doesn't mean the pool is completely dead — only that the township is no longer putting taxpayer money into it. It is possible the pool can could find private donors willing to pay to keep it open at no cost to township taxpayers.

"That would be our fantasy scenario," Pickard said. "Whether it's reality or not is another story."